BD’s export earnings grow 41pc despite pandemic

January 2022 earnings also surpassed target set for month by 19.73 pc: EPB

Special Correspondent:The country’s export sector has turned around quite well despite the Corona pandemic. Export earnings have been recorded several times in the last year. Exports also increased in January this year amid the transmission of a new type of corona- ‘Omicron’. Export income has increased by 41.13 percent. Goods worth $ 485 crore were exported in January-2022. During the same period last year, the revenue from export of goods was $ 343 crore.
This was stated in the updated report of the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) yesterday (Wednesday, February 2). It can be seen that along with the growth, the export income has also exceeded the target. Revenue in January was 19.74 percent higher than the target. The single-month export earnings in January this calendar year has created record riding on the readymade garment (RMG) amid the pandemic.
Bangladesh fetched $3.43 billion from merchandise shipments in January last year.
The January 2022 earnings also surpassed the target set for the month by 19.73 per cent, according to provisional data released by the EPB.
Since last September, Bangladesh’s single-month export earnings had been surpassing the four-billion mark.
Besides, the country’s overall merchandise exports during the first seven months of the current fiscal year 2021-22 also marked a growth of 30.34 per cent to $29.54 billion.
The July-January earning in the 2020-21 fiscal year, which fell into a full flash of the pandemic, was $22.67 billion.
The overall export earnings also surpassed the set target by 16.17 per cent, according to EPB data.
Out of the total $29.54 billion worth of export income during the July-January period, the RMG sector fetched $23.98 billion, recording a 30.30 per cent growth compared to the corresponding period of last fiscal.
A breakdown of the clothing-sector performance shows that the knitwear subsector of the RMG earned $13.27 billion from exports, registering a growth of 32.89 per cent.
Earnings from the export of woven garments amounted to $10.71 billion in the last five months, up by 27.23 per cent.
Home-textile exports also recorded 30.1 per cent growth to $831.31 million during the first seven months of the current fiscal year.
Meanwhile, the jute sector which demonstrated positive growth throughout the last fiscal recorded a 9.13 per cent fall in the July-January period with earnings of $695.73 million, down from $765.63 million.